FRANCE has rejected US President Donald Trump’s suggestion Brazil should be given NATO membership, saying the military alliance was only open to European countries.

The US leader, who once described the alliance as “obsolete,” has been unrelenting in his criticism of his EU allies, accusing them of not spending enough on their own armed forces. French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnès von der Mühll said: “NATO is an alliance of nations linked by a collective defence clause, in conformity with the Washington Treaty of April 4, 1949, which defines the geographical field of application. Article 10 of the alliance’s founding treaty confines membership to European countries.”

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Brazil could follow in the footsteps of neighbouring Columbia and join NATO as a “global partner,” Mrs von der Mühll suggested, adding that such alliances “strengthen international stability”.

The alliance reached a partnership agreement with Colombia back in May 2017, saying they would cooperate on global security areas like cyber and maritime security, terrorism and links to organized crime.

Columbia is currently the only Latin American nation in the alliance. Other global partners include Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan.

Such partners do not necessarily have to take part in military action, but are fully accredited in Brussels.

Mr Trump floated the possibility that Brazil could become a full-fledged member of NATO after security talks with conservative President Jair Bolsonaro at the White House on Tuesday.

He said: “I intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally or even possibly, if you start thinking about it, maybe a NATO ally.

“We’re going to look at that very, very strongly in terms of – whether it’s NATO or it’s something having to do with alliance.

“I have to talk to a lot of people, but maybe a NATO ally, which will greatly advance security and cooperation between our countries.”

Washington’s relationship with Brazil has “never been better,” he added.

He said: “I think there was a lot of hostility with other presidents. There's zero hostility with me.”

Mr Trump has in the past slammed the military alliance as “obsolete”. And shortly after a NATO summit last July he questioned whether the US would honour the alliance's founding principle of mutual defence for newest member Montenegro.

At the summit, Mr Trump accused his European allies of freeloading on the protection offered by US troops and threatened to pull out of the alliance if they did not significantly increase contributions to their own defence.

NATO's headquarters in Brussels (Image: Getty Images)

President Jair Bolsonaro and Mr Trump (Image: Getty Images)

Pledges to spend up to 2 percent of national income on defence by 2024 must be met by January, Washington warned at the time, ignoring the reality that most NATO allies currently spend just half of that and would struggle to comply.

Mr Trump has also backed Brazil’s efforts to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of the world’s largest economies.

Brazil, the world’s eighth-biggest economy, applied in 2017 to join the OECD, which has some three dozen members including Latin American countries Mexico, Chile and Colombia.